Rugby-themed billboard urging victims to speak out given high profile at Twickenham

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Tracy McVeigh
The Observer, Saturday 25 February 2012

Survivors UK’s campaign was prompted by figures suggesting that 8,500 men a year may be raped in London alone every year.

Rugby fans heading through London's Waterloo station on their way to the England versus Wales game at Twickenham yesterday were the target of the first major advertising campaign by a male rape charity.

The charity's poster has already caused controversy after appearing in London underground stations last week to coincide with the Six Nations tournament. Featuring a rugby ball pierced by a nail and the message "Real men get raped and talking about it takes real strength", the adverts will also feature on electronic billboards in March when England play their final home match against Ireland.

Michael May of Survivors UK, a charity that runs a helpline and counselling service for adult gay or heterosexual men who have experienced rape, said the campaign was a response to new Metropolitan Police figures which reveal that on average, in London, a man is the victim of a sexual crime every hour.

The government estimates that 11% of male victims report being attacked. Therefore, May believes, the 945 assaults recorded by the Met in 2009-10 suggest a true figure closer to 8,500 in the capital.

"The alpha-male imagery of rugby is clearly suited to challenging the assumptions about male rape," May said. "A victim is just as likely to be a rugby player as a City banker or a gang member. And we hope that by challenging our innate assumptions about the identity of male victims, we can make it even fractionally easier for a male rape victim to ask for help.

"The posters are proving a bit controversial, but we need to get more men coming forward with their experiences and lose the taboos that hold them back from seeking help."

Professor Kim Etherington, a fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, said men faced deep-rooted fears about reporting a sexual attack or admitting they had been raped: "Males are taught from a very early age that they should be 'strong' and 'in charge'. To be successfully masculine is to be sexually potent, competitive with other males in sexual matters and dominant with sexual interactions. Being raped challenges and negates all these preconceptions."

A review of male-victim sexual assaults led the Home Office to put aside a small pot of money to help victims. A report last year by Baroness Stern acknowledged that the vast majority of male victims of sexual violence do not report it because of the view that men "should be able to fight off an attacker".

The review recognised that men do not come forward for fear of being ridiculed or disbelieved, or for fear they may be seen as gay, or because they do not wish to be regarded as less of a man.

By men or by women? I know that somewhere in Africa there are women who actually rape men

The belief that man is an irresolute creature pulled this way and that by two forces of equal strength, alternately winning and losing the battle for his soul; the conviction that human life is nothing more than an uncertain struggle between heaven and hell; the faith in two opposed entities, Satan and Christ - all this was bound to engender those internal discords in which the mind, excited by the incessant fighting, stimulated as it were by the constant promises and threats, ends up by giving in and prostitutes itself to whichever of the two combatants has been more obstinate in its pursuit. Life isn't black and white, it's gold.

Michael May of Survivors UK, a charity that runs a helpline and counselling service for adult gay or heterosexual men who have experienced rape, said the campaign was a response to new Metropolitan Police figures which reveal that on average, in London, a man is the victim of a sexual crime every hour.

I can't imagine what the rate is for women. What is wrong with London?! I didn't feel unsafe there ever.

A couple of years ago the Comedy Channel had a week long replay of prison comedy movies. In each show there was an incident of male rape and the movies treated this as if it was the world's biggest joke. Perhaps the solution to this serious problem is for society to stop regarding it as a joke and to realize that it needs to be solved, not laughed at.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

Male abuse is something that needs much more discussion and awareness. Just like domestic abuse towards men, that is often tragically uncovered due to society's perception of male 'strength' and 'male pride' and that disgusting notion of 'real men', which inevitably will make men in this position feel guilt-ridden and ashamed.